Perdue Farms and EPA Ink Pact to Protect Water

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:03:00 -0500

Poultry producer Perdue Farms Inc. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency signed an agreement this week that is intended to help protect the waters in the mid-Atlantic and Southest from contamination.

The agreement enables Perdue, one of the country's leading poultry companies, to implement its clean water initiative — a program to provide training, assessment and related assistance to farms that produce poultry for the company. » read more

Mandatory CSR Reporting for Denmark's Largest Companies

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Hundreds of the largest private and state-owned companies and institutional investors in Denmark must include corporate social responsibility information in their annual financial reports beginning in 2010.

The Danish Parliament voted in mid-December to force the 1,100 largest enterprises to describe their corporate CSR or socially responsible investment policies, the ways in which they've been implemented and the results they've produced. » read more

Green Fuels, Cars Get Boost from Cow Pie Power, the Queen and New EV Charging Hub

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:30:00 -0500

The drive to green mobility got a boost into the New Year with news of heightened efforts to produce fuels from a variety of waste products, word that Queen Elizabeth's Bentleys are going green and the launch of an electric vehicle charging network in Northern California.

Exploration of the power of poop, both bovine and human, made news in the U.S. and Japan. » read more

South Korea to Invest $38 Billion in Green Projects

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

South Korea is planning a $38 billion investment in what it's calling its Green New Deals, an effort to boost jobs and the economy, Agence France-Presse reported.

The Green New Deals is made up of 36 projects which include bicycle tracks, high-speed railways, building 2 million energy-efficient homes, producing energy from garbage, cleaning four major rivers and building dams, banks and water-treatment plants to reduce environmental risks.

The four-year investment would create about 960,000 new jobs for the country, which saw its unemployment rate go from 3 percent to 3.1 percent between Oct » read more

PepsiCo Touts Water, Energy Savings from 2007

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

In 2007, PepsiCo saved 5 billion liters of water and nearly 500 million kilowatt hours of electricity compared to its resource use in 2006. In its fourth sustainability report, PepsiCo gives some examples of how its operations around the world have reduced, water, fuel and energy use, as well as spread sustainability throughout its supply chain.

For "Our Sustainability Journey," PepsiCo was for the first time able to compare year-to-year energy, water and fuel use for all of its operations, including Frito-Lay North American, Quaker, Tropicana and Gatorade. » read more

Tata Motors in Talks to Make Micro-Hybrid Version of Nano

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Tata Motors is in talks to develop a micro-hybrid version of its affordable, though not-yet available, Nano car, according to Indian news channel CNBC-TV18.

The micro-hybrid system does not actually include hybrid fuel technology; it is the so-called start-stop system found in hybrid electric vehicles that turns the engine off when the vehicle is idling. » read more

Funding Stalled for Indiana Recycling Projects

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has suspended six state-funded grant and loan programs for recycling and pollution prevention programs.

Putting the programs for businesses and local governments on hold will save about $2 million, and the department expects to hold off on the grants and loans for 18-30 months.

The department said the loans and grants require recipients to put up matching funds, which might not be feasible in the current economy. Programs already in place should not be affected, the department said. » read more

Air New Zealand Completes Biofuel Test

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:00:00 -0500

Air New Zealand has completed a test flight partially using jatropha-based fuel, another experiment on the path to cleaning up the emissions and impact of flying.

The airliner sent a 747 on a two-hour flight Dec. 29 from and to Auckland International Airport. One of its four engines was filled with a 50-50 blend of fuel based on the jatropha plant and conventional jet fuel. » read more

GreenBiz.com's Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:00:00 -0500

In a year when the economy was all the business world could talk about, our readers dug in deep to stories about creating change, overhauling the ways business gets done, and yes, how going green can save big money.

On a daily basis, we covered news about innovations, commitments and the thousands of small achievements that lead to big impacts from companies around the world. » read more

A Closer Look at IBM's "Smarter Planet" Campaign

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:00:00 -0500

In December 2008, GreenBiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower talked with IBM Corporation's Rich Lechner, Vice President of Energy & Environment, and John Kennedy, Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications, about the company's "Smarter Planet" advertising campaign. (See related blog post.)

Following is the transcript of the interview, edited for clarity.

Joel Makower: We all see so many corporate ad campaigns. And I've always been curious about how these come about and the thinking behind them. » read more